Background Passage: I Samuel 16:7
Dallan Forgaill, a sixth century Christian poet from Ireland, penned the words to Rob Tú Mo Baile in Old Irish. The poem proclaims a message that has endured for more than a millennium. Legend says that Dallan, a nickname which literally means “little blind one,” lost his sight as a young man because he studied so long and so intensely.
Through the years, monks used his poem as part of the liturgy of the church, it’s words deeply meaningful. More than 1,100 years later in 1905, the poem was finally translated for the first time into English by noted linguist Mary Elizabeth Byrne and adapted as a hymn seven years later by Eleanor Hull. We know the song as Be Thou My Vision.
I came across this version of a song I’ve heard all my life and was reminded again of how often deep spiritual truth is conveyed through words and melody. Too often we see those around us…value them…based upon how they live and what they look like. The lyrics of this song speak to the way Christ sees past the outward circumstances and external appearance straight into the heart. I Samuel 16:7 spells it out with supreme clarity.
Samuel stood confused as God rejected all the brothers of David as king and instructed the priest to anoint David instead, the youngest and smallest among them. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
This rendition of Be Thou My Vision, performed by Eden’s Bridge, a Christian band whose harmonies align well with elements of Celtic music, expresses the profound faith of one whose heart’s desire longs to life unfold through the eyes of Christ. As you listen to the melody, take note also of the lyrics:
“Be thou my vision.” What would it mean to our lives if we looked at the world around us with the eyes of Christ? How would it change the way we treat each other? The love of Christ is unconditional. Love that looks beneath a sometimes ugly surface and sees the heart’s deepest need. A love that sees the deepest need of our fellow man and acts redemptively in that person’s life. The song reminds us when the Lord of our hearts opens our eyes and becomes our best thought of the day his presence can light up the dark places that hide the inner hearts of those around us. Imagine how differently we might think and act.
“Be thou my wisdom.” What would it mean to our lives if we let our thoughts be God’s thoughts? His wisdom our wisdom? How would it change our actions and deeds if we allowed the Holy Spirit to dwell with us every hour of every day? Imagine the struggle we could avoid and the hurt we might no longer cause ourselves and others if we relied on his wisdom instead of our own.
“Be thou my armor.” Amid the onslaught of the world’s temptations, what would it mean to our lives if we stood in the strength of God, allowing his presence in our lives to shield us from the traps into which we stumble and fall? To protect us from the evil we too readily accept in our lives? Imagine what it would mean to us and those we love if we rested daily in the power of Christ?
“Be thou my treasure.” What would it mean to our lives if we spent less time worried about gathering the riches of the world or the praise of others and banked instead on the heavenly inheritance of grace that comes when we accepted Christ as savior? How different would our lives be if we stored up the treasures of heaven rather than the riches of the world? Imagine the freedom that comes from the absence of worry about material things that really don’t matter.
“Be thou my victory.” If we saw the world through the eyes of Christ, victory in life is ours. The joy and contentment only he provides is ours. The eternity he promises is ours. And, nothing that happens in this world, nothing anyone does to you, changes any of that.
“Be thou my vision.” I know. Allowing Christ the kind of access into our hearts to enable us to see the world through his eyes is easier said than done. We fight it so. But, what would our lives be and how would our lives change if we made this song our prayer as we wake each morning?
“Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.”